Hitting the Road

Several people have asked me what my plans are for the holidays, which in itself is mildly humorous (plan?), and in response I would hedge and say something like, “I’ll probably just hole up and get some work done, or maybe I’ll go somewhere warm.”

Of course, when someone else does the planning, I’m happy to ride along. Thus when fuego asked if I was interested in Venice for New Year’s Eve, I was all over it. Later, when the plan changed to Ireland, I rolled right along with it. So it seems that I will be spending a couple of weeks on the Emerald Isle, and much of the time I will be in the corner of the island that the recent tech boom managed to avoid. It is also, from what I can make out, the stormiest part of Ireland, and me without a raincoat. (No major worries on that count, one of my favorite memories of that country is being caught in a downpour several miles from home while bicycling around with Jesse, hollering out blues riffs. That was the day we learned just what it means to be a “soggy bunny”. (Although, that was summer; it would be less of a good memory in winter, I suspect.) )

I’m Ireland bound, where the only point of etiquette is that you converse with the people around you. A culture like that is certainly worthy of admiration. It’s fortunate that some of them speak a language similar to mine.

I have no idea how often I’ll be able to get online, so posts here may be infrequent, or come in bursts. Any disruption of routine is likely to lead to new things to write about, so if history is any guide there will be pauses of several days followed by several long posts that prove to be too much to read, with the best one way at the bottom where everyone will miss it. It’s a system I’ve honed with care over the years.

Following my trip to reacquaint myself with top-fermented beers I will be invading the western hemisphere. After getting car, insurance, and renewed driver’s license sorted out I will be puttering around the western US for a week or three. I strongly suspect this three weeks will be much closer to actually being three weeks, since I will have a return ticket. (For those new to these pages, the last time I drove around for “about three weeks” it took 7 1/2 months, and established “Muddled Ramblings and Half-Baked Ideas” as a way of life, and not just a writing style. What a great time that was…)

10 thoughts on “Hitting the Road

  1. Speaking as one whose plans changed while traveling — return tickets were made to be changed :)

    So when does the ‘western hemisphere’ get to pencil you in?

  2. Merry Christmas to the muddled ramblers throughout the blogosphere.

    Jer, of course we’d love to have you visit again.

    As a personal favor, could you please watch the Charges today? Thanks.

  3. Remember, if you lay over in Minneapolis this year for more than a couple of hours, give a holler. I’d gladly take a day off work to drive north and buy a Piker a beer.

  4. That was a good time. Make a good short story – getting stuck in a place you expected to leave in a day, only instead to find out it was some sort of a holiday and we would be trapped in an emerald nook of an emerald isle for much longer. I recall the B&B lady as being humorless, but very kindly because she immediately made us take off our soggy bunny clothes and she put them near some old fashioned heat to dry.

  5. Just to let you know my brother said I could have some of his lovely homebrew. He wanted me to warn you it wasn’t ‘stout’ or ‘lager’ but more along lines of pale ale. I said I thought you would still enjoy.

  6. Based on the result, I thought you watched all but the final minute. The Seahawks led at that point but gave up the game winning touchdown then.

    Fortunately, the Seahawks still managed to slide into the playoffs.

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